Genetically Altering Plants and Animals, Is It Safe for America

Ray Negron

                Strayer University

                Author Note

Ray Negron, Student, Department of English 215, Strayer University.

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Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ray Negron , Department of English 215, Strayer University, Washington DC 20005.

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Genetically altering plants and animals, is it safe for America

GMO’s are killing us and here is why.  Over seventy percent of the food on the supermarket shelves are genetically modified.  Secondly, there is something very different with these foods that have happened without our knowledge or consent.  As a consequence, what we do not know is killing our population big time.  This is the very reason we need to understand how GMO products are hurting us and why so many people are legitimately concerned about, and against, Genetically Modified Foods.”

For example, scientists can choose which, but they do not yet know where in the DNA to insert precisely these genes, and they have no way of controlling gene expression. Genes do not work in isolation, changing a few could change the whole picture, with unpredictable results. Gene therapy can be a pretty dangerous procedure. For example, a virus is being used as the vector to get the genes inside, and some fear that even though virulence factors have been silenced, the danger is still at hand. There is also a possibility that a gene could potentially land in an area other than where it is intended and cause significant damage in unusual ways. There have been several deaths in gene therapy trials, most famously that of Jesse Gelsinger in 1999.

Jeffrey Smith, the executive director of the Institute for Responsible Technology, says, “I am not against gene therapy, where you correct a defective gene and save lives,” says “I am not against GE studies in labs. However, to feed the products of this infant science to people without studying their effects and to release them into the environment where they cannot be recalled is extremely dangerous and irresponsible.” (O’Connell Elizabeth & Fernandez Tracy, 2014)

What exactly are people eating when they eat a product containing GMOs? According to a recent Consumer Report of 1,000 adults, more than seventy percent said they do not want GMO’s in their food. That is hard to avoid, consumer test show that GMO’s are in breakfast cereals, soy infant formulas, chips, etc.  Also, GMO;s are in many packaged foods even those that claim they do not have these controversial ingredients.(Rock, n.d.)  Let alone, not labeling is unfair to the consumers who should have the right to know what they are purchasing so they can decide whether they want to buy the food or not.  At the end of the day, some people might have religious or moral concerns.  Further, not to mention how this leads us to a much larger debate over the applications surrounding the agriculture biotechnology in food production. Are GMO’s, in fact, safe to eat, reduce pesticide use, help farmers produce more food, preserve our soils and decrease greenhouse gas emissions? (Ramez, n.d.)

In the early 1990’s the biochemical company Monsanto started to sell genetically modified corn engineered with a protein from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt. Which produces Bt-toxin, a pesticide that breaks open the stomach of certain insects and kills them. First on the Bt corn proved to be very successful by making it easy for agriculturist to control weeds.  As a result, farmers adopted Bt corn in droves because it saved them the money that they would have otherwise spent on insecticide and the fuel and labor needed to apply it. However, today, the pests are already developing resistance to the GM corn and other serious consequences are also being uncovered. (Ramez, n.d.)

Early on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientific consulting committee warned that the threat of insects developing resistance to Bt corn was high, so the pest resistance is not exactly a surprise. Needless to say, Monsanto argued that the steps necessary to prevent such an occurrence - that it would have required less of the corn being planted -- were an unnecessary precaution, and the EPA naively agreed.  (Mercola, n.d.)

Unfortunately, we are at a point where there is nothing ahead of us, except for skyrocketing use of Glyphosate, the primary herbicide in Roundup, including a few others such as 2,4-D containing agent orange, and Dicamba, the ones that we thought that we would never have to use again. (Diep, n.d.)  As a result, herbicide-resistant and pesticide-resistant crops could create super-weeds and super-pests that may need newer, stronger chemicals to destroy them.

The claim of GMO technology potentially ending world hunger is false. A shortage of food does not cause world hunger, and it is by mismanagement, and due to the lack of access to various social, financial and political causes. The two primary GMO crops grown today are BT corn and Roundup Ready soybeans that are animal feeding crops, they are not food crops. Most impoverished countries eat little to none meat protein and will not benefit at all from these crops. The third most commonly planted is BT cotton, which is not a crop intended to feed starving nations.

With much of the population growth to come in 49 of the least developed countries, and most of these people eating rice, there should be no guessing as to what these people will be eating in 2050.   Most people are not aware of the fact that rice paddies are responsible for between seven and seventeen percent of methane emissions, which occur by the natural decaying process with rice paddies are flooded with the rice demand set to grow, that number is very likely to increase.

Over the years when it comes to methane there have been numerous efforts to reduce emissions from changing irrigations practices in India to developing a cap and trade program for farmers in California.  However, in an attempt to reduce greenhouse emissions scientist in the United States, Sweden and China are taking a different approach. By making a genetic adjustment, by the way, rice plants store energy, can reduce emissions.